CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE LIVEE. 

 BY EWALD HERING, 



PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN THE JOSEFS-AKA.DEMIE IN VIENNA. 



THE liver is a gland which prepares its secretion, not like other 

 glands from arterial blood, but from the venous blood of the 

 portal vein. The extraordinarily rich capillary plexus into 

 which the latter breaks up, and from which the hepatic vein 

 takes its origin, receives however also the blood of the hepatic 

 artery after this has traversed a special capillary system serving 

 for the nutrition of the vessels, biliary ducts, and nerves. The se- 

 creting cells of the liver are characterized by a peculiar arrange- 

 ment, by virtue of which they are brought into much more 

 intimate and extended contact with the capillaries than occurs 

 in any other gland, whilst the number of ducts into which 

 these cells discharge their contents is likewise much greater in 

 comparison to the number of bloodvessels than is elsewhere 

 seen. Considerations derived from the study of Comparative 

 Anatomy demonstrate that the liver belongs to the group of 

 tubular glands, although in the adult Man no tubular structure 

 can be recognized, and only indications of its presence can be 

 discerned in the newly born infant. 



OF THE LOBULAR STRUCTURE OF THE LIVER. The terminal 

 branches of the arborescent and ramified hepatic veins are 

 short, straight, or slightly sinuous vessels, which are given off 

 at an obtuse angle from the venous trunks, or constitute their 

 dichotomously divided extremities. They are termed intra- 



VOL. II. B 



